Five more days to land just after the European vote: this is the time the European Commission took to decide on the green light for the marriage between ITA and Lufthansa.
The officialization of what was in the air – even in the days of Minister Girgetti’s recent visit to Commissioner Vestager – can be learned from the antitrust itself on the relevant directorate’s website: Brussels will decide on 13 June.
Decisions of this kind are taken to give the companies involved extra time to define the latest measures to deal with competition concerns.
The Italian-German axis, on the other hand, is grappling with the decisions to be made to dispel the doubts regarding competition and price increases for travelers that the Commission has raised.
And it is ready to take a step in the direction desired by Brussels by freeing up eleven daily slots from Milan Linate, while easyJet is the first candidate to take over the routes in which the new Ita-Lufthansa proves to be too strong, in a role of so-called “remedy taker ” which would facilitate the closing of the operation.